What a week! Beau will be 8 months next Wednesday and is giving me a run for my money but we ended the week on a high note.
First, our celebratory event with backstory first – we have had crating issues from the start. Beau has never settled in a crate, never fell asleep in a crate, never quieted in a crate, nothing ever.
Keep in mind, I have been crating him starting with tiny increments of time since the day he came to me (Oct 11). He has screamed constantly every single time and not like a fussy cry for a few minutes then settles – a full-on blood curdling scream. BUT….I am pleased ro report that Monday I was able to get him to settle and crate for 30 minutes and actually go to the little market across the street for some overpriced groceries. Tuesday wasn’t great with 15 minutes spent screaming and scratching. Wednesday and Thursday were a little better but not much at about 15 mins or so and Friday was nominally better; I crated him while I was present in my office working on a deadline and got 25 minutes where he settled after 5 minutes but whined the rest of the time.
Today’s victory – I got him crated for 45 minutes!!! He screamed for 4 minutes then laid down and whined on and off until he FELL SLEEP about 28 minutes in! Huzzah! I was able to go to the proper supermarket which was amazing!
The second reason to celebrate which is actually just a little brag (I need it after this week) on our training. Every day, I do a lot of training with Beau. From formal sessions outside to incidental things in the house and today was no different, except I filmed it. We spent a few minutes working on everything (except heel) and I taught him a new trick – poke. Hey, if I use a natural behavior and trickify it, who can blame me. It was a good session and he seems to really enjoy working. You can see our session using the link below, but ignore my chatter. I should know better than to talk so much, it can be confusing to the pup but he did really well!
The low point of this week – Beau came back from that awful kennel reacting loudly to other dogs. I don’t know what happened but he gets SO excited to when he sees another dog and starts ’talking’ and jumping. It sounds like the Exorcist beast and not what I need.
Anyway, let’s take the victories we can!
BeauOnTheGo 